July 15th 2024
THE club has now completed the appointment of its new under-15s coaching team. Paul Morganti and Andrew Colliar have joined up with Stephen Grant to coach the side for the coming season. The new coaches oversaw two trials at the end of last season and have been taking the team for pre-season training, which started last Tuesday. The club's Head of Youth Development, Stewart McInnes, said: "Bringing Paul and Andrew in is another step in the right direction for us developing our own players for the first team." "Paul has been there and knows what it is all about. He came through the youth system at the club along with a number of players who have gone on to have successful Highland League careers at a time when the club was last able to produce its own players some 10 years ago." "He has played for many years with Nairn St Ninian and fancies something new, so has turned his hand to coaching. There is a real hunger to do well there with Paul and I am sure that his enthusiasm for the game and his desire to better himself as a coach will rub off on the players in the under-15s squad and help to make them all better players." He added: "Andrew Colliar is a member of our under-20s squad and already holds an SFA C Licence despite his young age. It is a great opportunity for him to put into practice what he has learned on these coaching courses and to make the step up having previously coached primary school-aged players at Balloan in Inverness." "Paul is still only 29 years of age and Andrew is just 18, so it is great for the club to have two dynamic young coaches on board who will hopefully go on and forge long and successful careers in the game and form the backbone of the youth structure at the club for many years." "Retaining Stephen Grant from last year's coaching setup also provides that bit of consistency for the players. He worked alongside Craig Walker and Barrie McDonald last year, so the remaining players in the squad know him and how he works, which has also helped Paul and Andrew in their first few weeks as well." The appointments follow on from Mark Greig and Max Campbell taking over as the club's new under-17s coaching team. "It means that we now have a completely new structure in place on the football side of the club," McInnes stated. "In the last 12 months, we have had a turnover of staff in all football positions including the first team management, under-20s coaching team and both under-17s and under-15s coaching teams." "The structure that we want is now all in place and we are looking for all of the new coaching teams to work in sync with one another and hopefully, that will bear fruit in the first team in the years to come." The under-15s' first pre-season friendly is at home to Shetland on Friday July 28th while the under-17s started their pre-season programme away at Elgin City at Thornhill this Sunday at 1.00 pm. Graeme Macleod
